Up Next: A Health Insurance Company Bailout?

Carol Platt Liebau

11/18/2013 8:10:00 PM - Carol Platt Liebau

No wonder we had to wait to pass it to find out what was in it; had everyone known what was in it, it never would have passed.

Here is the latest ugly surprise hidden in the massive ObamaCare legislation: Taxpayers could end up reimbursing up to 80% of health insurers' costs if those costs exceed insurer estimates:

Yep, you heard that right. If the insurance companies' costs are 3% higher than they had estimated (as a result of there being an older and/or sicker population than they expected in the ObamaCare pools), they can collect 50% of that money from the taxpayers. If their costs are 8% higher than previously estimated, they are reimbursed for a whopping 80%!

So even if Americans were able to get back the insurance they liked, they're still on the hook to pay the insurance companies when the companies' costs exceed their estimates.